Holly and Calvaros County Fish and Game

So this started off simply wonderful, Dennis and I head up to fish the Stanislaus around noon on Saturday hoping to take in some of the afternoon hatch...Dana stayed home with Claude and we took Charlie (Dennis's dog) with us....we arrived about 4pm and weren't sure where to fish, we tried one road that ended up being blocked with a huge tree and about 30 mins later up past Arnold (can i just give a shout out for all the books and maps from christmas birthday for fly-fishing and of course my museum books from mel !! I have not stopped looking at one or another and they are just perfect) anyway, we are about another 30 mins away up past Arnold to where we were gonna fish the next day and first we see one foot of snow, two feet, etc...until about 8 ft of snow drifts and the road we need is completely blocked...now all you hear these days in the bay area is how there is NO SNOW, anywhere, and here we are practically in a blizzard...so needless to say we head back to our cottage (literally the worst place I have ever stayed at, we almost left and went to a hotel or anything else, I told dennis if he had rented it, I would have never let him live it down, too bad I had made the reservation !! ha !) so we head back down, end up going to Mary Buckley's cabin, she works for Dennis now and we know her from our early Austin days, super sweet lady who had two of her three kids in (one is in college, very cute and smart girl just like Mary and her son who is in high school) for a ski break....They have a very nice cabin and we enjoyed panini's and sitting by the fire....I called before we left to ask her if they have dogs and she literally says "No, we had one but he died two months ago, we're gonna have a memorial service for him later tonight." to which I am SHOCKED and SPEACHLESS, I have no idea how to respond, I of course bumble and mumble about how devastating and sorry I am, I didn't know what to say, I am GLARING at Dennis because its his dog we wanted to bring to her cabin but he made me call, so she finally asks why I am asking, so I tell her we have a black lab and she goes into her story about their yellow lab and as long as Charlie isn't named Ben, we can bring him....Well needless to say, we get off the phone and debate about whether to bring Charlie...we decide he can go and head out...I call Dana who decides that Mary is just teasing and messing with me, that noone would say that...of course we get there and sure enough she was NOT teasing, their dog had died and her kids and husband start joking with her about awkward introductions...which was funny, we all laughed and told stories...I think I won with my mom is living in jerusalem, so that was good :D
anyway...we leave there and go sleep at our disgusting cottage but I figure if I am going to fish, I may have to stay in some questionable places, its part of the experience....so I actually sleep really well, Dennis doesn't and gets up before me, we head out to a great little breakfast place that does sandwiches as well and get our grub for the day...
We head out and punch in the coordinates from my handy map into his GPS, which takes us on what is marked as a county road, we finally get to a gate with a very old man who drives his truck up to us....he is very scary looking, anyone remember the movie Deliverance ?? well this guy looks like he had a brillo pad to his face, lots of wrinkles, he smelled, etc...etc...and he asks us how we ended up on this road, to which we reply, this stupid computer and obviously we were in the wrong place.....he ends up being very nice and gives us directions for where we need to go, we finally after about another hour find the place and park....
its just spectacular, per usual, worth the many hours of driving and now we know where to go next time, there is NOONE around...noone fishing, noone hiking, nothing....ours is the only car (Clue #1)...so we get down to the river and have at it, Dennis hooks about 5 en total and I hook 2 and almost land one but he got away....so we break a couple of hours later, its so beautiful and tons of great fishing....just couldnt have asked for better fishing conditions !! lots of fish and they were biting...so after the break we go back down, I am not having much luck with my midge, so I pull out the big guns, some prince nymphs and as I am tying my midge onto my prince, I hear someone yelling at me, so I look up and there is a big white truck with Park Ranger written on the side and some woman yelling at me...
I step out and can't barely hear her becuase I am down in the canyon, so she yells at me..."Its not trout season" to which I reply in all my first year of fishing "I know its not trout season !!" Obviously ,I am a fierce warrior fisherwoman ,I know when trout season is, it ends in November....and for most places in California that means you can't keep any trout, but as long as you catch and release- fish all you want....so she says some other stuff but I can't hear and she tells me she's gonna come around to the other side....
She comes around and I debate about going all the way up the side, its several hundred feet and steep elevation but I decide it must be something...I try to get Dennis's attention but he's messing with his line and can't hear me (we forgot to charge our walkie-talkies)...so I head up and finally get to the top and she says again as she is getting out of her truck, "its not trout season" and I again say "I know" ?? So then she thinks I am being a smart-a$$ and gets mad, she starts going into all the laws that I am breaking and how its considered "poaching" and really isn't being very nice...she asks if we read the sign posted on the road, to which I reply, "of course we read the sign, trout season April through Nov, but we catch and release" and even when its not in season you can fish, just not keep any...I read all the regulations and my buddy read them before we left and we were pretty sure she was wrong...at which point she admits that she isn't Fish and Game but can put a call into verify but she thinks we are wrong but realizes that we weren't intentionally breaking the law...so we stand there for a few minutes and I admit I am new to fly fishing and California and so I really don't know what to do, so she puts in the call to them and takes my name and number...meanwhile, to play it safe, she suggests we not fish...so I said to her, "Well its expensive enough without a big fine," to which she replies, "its not just a fine, it includes mandatory jail time at the time of arrest for poaching...." at which point I grasp the gravity of the situation...so I ask her if she can try and yell at Dennis for me because he won't hear me and won't understand how serious this is, so we go down to where he is and try to get his attention....
As I am walking over, I see he has hooked a fish and is working on landing the big guy....so right away I realize he isn't going to listen to either of us...we try to yell down to no avail....after some time, he finally lands the fish and looks up at us, the entire time we are yelling for him to stop, since she called Fish and Game to ask, we suspect they are on their way...as he is done and I am explaining to her that we always catch and release, she is getting nervous too and I realize he isn't just taking the hook out of the fish and I mumble to her, "he's gonna show us the fish" in a very quiet, humiliated voice...she chuckles, thank goodness and sure enough Dennis proudly holds up the fish, not realizing how much trouble we are in...he is SO PROUD of landing that wild trout, and I have to say it was a beauty !! He thinks she's just wanting to watch someone catch a fish. So finally I yell down to him "illegal" at which point he realizes somewhat the situation and heads back up, thinking no big deal...
When he gets to the road, I run up and tell him the 411, at which point we run to the car, throw all our stuff in and change as fast as we can and high-tail it out of there before Fish and Game show up...sure enough about 5 minutes on the road we pass Calveros County Fish and Game and that dude did not look happy or nice, so thankfully we lived to tell the tale and didn't get caught...
Turns out we read the regulations for the part of the river we were supposed to fish (that was up north and covered in snow) and there are special regulations for the part we ended up on and there is no fishing from November through April at all...
We vaguely remembered that part once we got back home. We now have a hand signal for "illegal" for which we leave the water at once...we were musing about how long it would take Dana or Mary to come get us and how the next day being MLK how many days we were gonna be in jail- probably at least Sunday and Monday...and although his boss was also up at his cabin in Arnold, we would need a sympathetic person to come get us...